


Two of Cups

by meoqie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Abduction, Aliens, Alternate Universe - 1980s, M/M, Psychic Abilities, Recreational Drug Use, Tarot, psychic keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 05:50:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14230671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meoqie/pseuds/meoqie
Summary: The two of cups: A card for chance meetings, burgeoning relationships, and developing feelings.Shiro is pretty sure he was abducted by aliens, but that's crazy, he's a sensible person, and sensible people don't believe in crazy. His friends, however, are apparently on board for crazy, and convince him to talk to an 'alien expert.' Shiro has no desire to go indulge in his alien lunacy with a tinfoil hat nutjob. Except the tinfoil hat nutjob is a psychic. A cute psychic. Shiro should probably take out a life insurance policy on 'being sensible' because it's about to be dead and buried.Featuring art bysidlaux





	Two of Cups

**Author's Note:**

> The original version of this fic was written for 'Between Two Points,' a Sheith zine! This version has extra scenes added and a different ending. Accompanying art is by Sidney Laux - [Tumblr](https://sidlaux.tumblr.com/) | [DeviantArt](https://sidlaux.deviantart.com/)

“I think I was abducted by aliens.”

If someone was trying to lose their place as the ‘reasonable one’ in a friend group, that sentence would be extremely effective.

Lance, Hunk, and Pidge stared at Shiro over half-empty cartons of Chinese food.

Lance was the first to speak. “I know a guy. That you should talk to. About aliens. He’s an expert.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow at what Lance said, and the way he broke up his sentences. “Thanks, Captain Kirk, but I wasn’t planning on exploring the aliens avenue any further.”

“Blocking it out isn’t going to make it un-happen,” Hunk said around a mouthful of crab rangoon. “What if there’s secret alien knowledge that could save the human race locked inside your head?’

Pidge swallowed her noodles and nodded. “The probability of aliens existing is pretty much a guarantee, although I have less data on them making contact with earth. But I agree with Hunk. If you’ve been abducted by aliens, you need to deal with the potential effects.”

Shiro looked at them all with a helpless hand gesture. He thought he’d be talked out of believing in the abduction, not encouraged to… seek out some ‘alien expert.’

“I  _really_ don’t want to go talk to some crackpot alien conspiracy theorist,” Shiro said.

Lance shook his head. “No, no, no! This guy is the real deal! He totally knows what he’s talking about. He’s like, a psychic and stuff, too. We talked for ages a few weeks ago. Do you know how much stuff makes way more sense if you factor in aliens? I felt  _enlightened_ afterward.”

“Were you high?” Shiro asked bluntly.

Lance scowled. “Beside the point. I think you should talk to him, Hunk and Pidge agree. You’re unanimously overruled.”

Hunk and Pidge were both nodding. Shiro surrendered and accepted the contact information from Lance.

 

･ ｡  
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　　 　　ﾟ☆ ｡

 

Later, alone in his apartment, Shiro stared at the phone number and address scribbled on the back of the Chinese receipt. Just because he  _had_ it didn’t mean he had to  _use_ it. But then he’d never hear the end of it from his so-called friends. Being crazy was bad enough. Crazy and a coward was too much for him to handle. He decided to just get it over with.

Listening to the tinny ring in the receiver as the temptation to hang up grew with each heartbeat was a special form of torture.

“Hello?”

Shiro’s heart leapt to his throat at the sound of the answering voice.

“Uh, hey. Is this Keith? My buddy Lance gave me your number…”

There was silence on the other end of the line, so Shiro pressed on.

“He said you’re an alien expert.”

“Oh! Yeah, sorry, this is Keith. How can I help you?”

“I think I was abducted the other night. By aliens. Lance told me I should talk to you.” Shiro cringed at himself. He was somehow managing to embarass himself to a self-described ‘alien expert.’ This was a new low.

“You should definitely talk to me. My schedule is clear tomorrow night after seven. You know where my place is, yes?”

Shiro glanced at the address. “Yeah. But--”

“Didn’t Lance tell you I’m a psychic, too? You’re free tomorrow night, Shiro.”

Shiro’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wait--!” he began, but Keith had already hung up.

 

･ ｡  
☆∴｡　*  
　･ﾟ*｡★･  
　　 　　ﾟ☆ ｡

 

The entire day, Shiro felt like he was wearing a beacon that said ‘certified nutjob’ over his head, although no one else seemed to notice. He found himself jumping at every sound like a skittish cat. He knocked his mug of pencils off his desk because a co-worker said ‘hey.’ He was awarded with raised eyebrows and a chuckle.

“Feeling on edge, Shirogane?” his co-worker asked.

“Just… watched a horror film last night,” Shiro lied quickly.

“Oh, the sequel to that alien one?”

Shiro’s brain latched on to the word ‘alien’ while alarms blared inside of his head. “Uh, yeah.”

His co-worker shuddered. “Couldn’t even get through the original. I like sleeping at night without thinking about something out there that can implant eggs in my lungs or something.”

Nausea rolled through Shiro. Did  _he_ have an alien egg in his lungs? Was he a cog in some master plan to take over the earth? He forced himself not to clutch at his chest.

“Anyway, that new guy busted the copier again. Boss asked for your ‘magic hands.’”

Shiro sighed and gave his co-worker a smile and a nod, absently rubbing his chest once he was out of sight. He didn’t smoke, but he craved a cigarette in that moment. Would cigarette smoke kill an alien egg?

He glanced at his watch. 12:46. Seven was still a long way off. He really hoped an alien didn’t burst out of his chest before then. Shiro comforted himself with the thought that a small Texas Instruments office wasn’t really the best place to start a hostile alien takeover. An advanced race of extraterrestrials would probably have an equally advanced strategy for world domination. Probably.

He checked his watch again. 12:48. It was going to be a long afternoon.

 

･ ｡  
☆∴｡　*  
　･ﾟ*｡★･  
　　 　　ﾟ☆ ｡

 

Shiro wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when he drove out to the address Lance had given him, but it wasn’t a cozy cottage on the edge of town. The hand-painted mailbox read ‘psychic’ in neat letters. He absently wondered if Keith got a lot of business.

His expectations of Keith were  _definitely_ different, when the man who opened the door wasn’t some forty-something whack job in a tinfoil hat, but rather petite and  _pretty,_ probably a couple years younger than Shiro himself. He found himself wishing they’d met under different circumstances, one that allowed for him to ask Keith out sometime. Immediately after he wished he hadn’t thought that, because, hello,  _psychic_.

Keith had an unreadable expression on his face as he swept his violet - violet! - gaze over Shiro. “Were you followed?” he asked.

“Uh, no?” Shiro said.

“You can never be too careful, who knows who might have been listening in on our phone conversation.”

Right, okay. So he was a little bit of a tinfoil hat type.

Inside aligned more with Shiro’s ideas, with a large cork board covered in newspaper clippings and yarn dominating a wall in the main room.

“So, Shiro,” Keith began, gesturing for him to take a seat. “Tell me about your abduction experience.”

“Yes, that. Um.”

Shiro hesitated. The story already sounded crazy in his head, and he was about to share it with a total stranger. A cute stranger.

“Do you want a beer?” Keith offered, picking up on Shiro’s discomfort.

“A beer would be great, actually.”

Shiro felt like he was about to talk to a laid-back New Age therapist as he sat at Keith’s table. The psychic took a seat across from him with his own beer, one knee drawn up to his chest and his head slightly tilted to the side. Purple gemstone earrings flashed in the warm glow of the setting sun through the nearby window. He tore his gaze away from Keith and took a deep breath.

“So I was in my bed, awake in the middle of the night, and suddenly I felt like I couldn’t move,” Shiro began, knowing it sounded like every other abduction story he’d ever heard. “And then there was a bright light outside of my window, and I could feel myself floating up and out towards this big purple ship.”

Keith listened with patient attention, never once interrupting or seeming irritated with Shiro’s constant pauses to collect his thoughts. The beer definitely helped with sharing the story, which sounded somehow even crazier out loud than it had in his head. He described weird experimentation, other alien prisoners, and a gladiator ring he was forced to take part in.

“... the weirdest thing was the way it seemed like so much time had passed?” Shiro said as he finished his story. “Like it feels like I was in this elaborate alien coliseum for months. But that’s impossible, right?”

Keith’s face was scrunched up in thought. Shiro tried not to think too loudly about how cute that was.

“Not necessarily,” Keith said after a long moment of silence. “Would you let me do a reading for you?”

“Reading?”

“Tarot cards.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow. Normally he didn’t go for that kind of stuff, he was already here, talking about his  _alien abduction_.

“Sure.”

Keith retrieved a deck from a small white box, the backs of the cards gently iridescent in the fading sunlight.

After having Shiro shuffle the deck, Keith laid out five cards, face down, and flipped over the first.

“Nine of swords,” he said, tapping it with his fingernail. “A card for anxiety and insomnia. In your case, fear of a repeat abduction experience.” He turned over the next card. “Seven of cups. That’s… interesting. Maybe the next card will clarify…”

The third card was The Fool, and Keith made a quiet ‘ah’ sound.

“Shiro, you may have a touch of psychic ability yourself,” he said. “I think your abduction experience triggered memories of a different lifetime, or an alternate reality.”

Shiro gave a small snort of amusement. Him? Psychic? Ridiculous.

“I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if I was psychic,” he said.

Keith pinned Shiro with a hard stare. “Ever experienced  _deja vu_? That’s psychic premonition. Got an uneasy feeling with no particular cause? Felt compelled to trust someone you barely knew?”

Shiro flushed. The last one seemed the most pointed. He did often feel drawn to trusting strangers. Right now, he was feeling pretty inclined to trust Keith, which was totally nuts.

Keith nodded in satisfaction, going back to the cards to reveal the fourth.

“Two of cups. A chance meeting, an opportunity to pursue a relationship.”

Shiro felt his flush increase, once again trying not to think about how he thought Keith was attractive.

“Not necessarily romantic,” Keith amended with a small blush of his own. “It could be anything, like a mentorship in your newfound psychic abilities.”

He flipped the last card. The Lovers.

Keith turned bright red. “Oh.”

 

 

Shiro cleared his throat, staring at everything besides Keith.

“So I came here for advice on being abducted by aliens and the universe is trying to say I should ask you out?” he tried to joke. So much for needing different circumstances.

“Honestly, when you told me Lance gave you my number, I thought it was because he was trying to set us up,” Keith confessed.

“... he was awfully insistent on me calling you.”

Shiro met Keith’s eyes and they both chuckled nervously. Keith looked away first, his lower lip between his teeth.

“So, uh--” Shiro began.

“Do you want another drink?” Keith asked, nodding at Shiro’s empty can.

“Oh, sure.”

When Keith returned with second beers for both of them, they sat at the table in silence. The cards sat between them like a volcanic chasm, practically glowing on their own, impossible to ignore. They were both trying not to stare at each other and Shiro couldn’t be sure who was failing at it more.

“So,” Shiro began again as the silence stretched to the breaking point. “You think I’m psychic?”

“Everyone is a little bit psychic,” Keith said, drawing one foot up onto his chair again. “Everyone is born with an innate magical ability. Children are in tune with their magic and the energies of the universe. Most people just… lose touch with it. They get bogged down with their daily lives.”

Shiro took a long swallow of his beer, humming an acknowledgement. Life did seem a whole lot less magical now that he was an adult. After the accident that destroyed his dreams of going to space, a grey cubicle from nine-to-five took away most of what was left of his imagination.

“How’d you stay in touch with your magic, then?” Shiro asked.

A corner of Keith’s mouth quirked up. “My innate magical nature was always a bit stronger than most human’s. And I had a rather unconventional childhood. Anyone can reconnect with their inner magic though. I could teach you how to restore yours. You just have to be willing to open your mind.”

“... is this going to involve weed?”

“This is going to involve weed,” Keith confirmed.

Shiro sighed, doubts about Keith creeping back in. He was reminded of Lance’s ‘enlightenment.’

“You have the exact opposite of an open mind right now,” Keith scolded. “Come on, let’s go up to the roof. When the sun finishes setting, the view of the stars will be amazing.”

Shiro vacillated for a moment. There was nothing stopping him from just leaving and heading home. He glanced at the cards on the table again, and then at Keith’s body as he headed down the small hallway. He followed Keith.

 

･ ｡  
☆∴｡　*  
　･ﾟ*｡★･  
　　 　　ﾟ☆ ｡

 

The stars were pretty spectacular, and as Shiro felt the high spread relaxation through his body, he decided that even if magic wasn’t real, he didn’t regret taking Keith’s offer.

They laid on the sun warmed shingles of Keith’s gently sloped roof, passing a joint back and forth. Conversation flowed easily, and more than once Shiro caught Keith staring at him in a way that made him hopeful that the attraction was mutual.

“I felt like a crazy person for even entertaining the idea that I was actually abducted by aliens,” he said as Keith laughed softly. “I was always, you know, the level-headed one. Got a stable office job and stuff.”

“Stable, and by that you actually mean boring,” Keith said, laughing louder.

“By that I absolutely mean boring,” Shiro agreed, grinning.

Keith leaned on his hand, giving Shiro a warm smile.

Shiro’s chest fluttered, and it wasn’t from a potential alien egg hatching in his lungs.

“So, what do you think the aliens wanted with me?” he asked. “Do you think they implanted some weird alien eggs in my chest?”

Keith snorted in amusement. “You’ve watched  _Alien_ too many times. They wanted to same thing all aliens want with humans.”

“And what’s that?”

“Just checking in. Seeing how the primitive lifeforms are doing. Find a worthy subject for breeding.”

Shiro choked on his own saliva. “B-breeding?”

Keith laughed. “Okay, that part isn’t real. But sometimes the aliens do fall for their test subjects and end up staying with them.”

“And how do you know all this?” Shiro asked.

Keith turned towards him with a secretive smile. “Because I’m half-alien.”

It was Shiro’s turn to laugh. He could accept the possibility that aliens were real and that Keith was truly a psychic. But a half-alien?

“It’s true!” Keith protested, lightly punching Shiro’s arm.

“How come you look totally human, then?” Shiro asked, still laughing.

A smug expression crossed Keith’s face. “Who says I do? You’re only judging based on what you can see.”

Shiro found his eyes trailing over Keith’s body. “And… what I can’t see?”

Keith shifted closer, sliding one hand up Shiro’s arm. “I can show you, if you’re interested,” he offered in a low voice.

Shiro’s pulse spiked, and he grabbed Keith’s wrist, pulling him close. “Oh, I am definitely interested,” he replied.

“Good,” Keith said, before he closed the distance between them to press their lips together.

Shiro curled his other hand into Keith’s hair, opening his mouth to deepen the kiss and tasting the same smoke and beer that already coated his tongue.

With the endless stars above and Keith’s warm body shifting closer to his own, Shiro felt like magic might be real after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I've actually never seen any of the _Alien_ films because I'm a huge weenie.
> 
> You can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/meoqie) and [Tumblr](http://meoqie.tumblr.com/)!


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